Man sentenced in 2008 Stamford murder

Updated 7:23 am, Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Photo: Desmarais,Paul, ST

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FILE — Kevin Wilson, pictured here when he was arraigned in 2009 on charges he killed 26-year Jonathan Green, pleaded guilty to one count of murder on Thursday, September 8, 2011, agreeing to spend 35 years in prison. Green was found dead in September 2008 in a grassy lot in Stamford's South End. Wilson, 21, of Samson Street in Bridgeport, was arraigned on murder charges in 2009.

FILE — Kevin Wilson, pictured here when he was arraigned in 2009 on charges he killed 26-year Jonathan Green, pleaded guilty to one count of murder on Thursday, September 8, 2011, agreeing to spend 35 years

STAMFORD -- Kevin Wilson, the 21-year-old Bridgeport man who shot and killed South End resident Jonathan Green three years ago, was sentenced to 35 years in prison Tuesday, moments after Green's parents urged Judge Richard Comerford to impose a 60-year prison sentence.

Their requests were moot, however, as the 35-year sentence had been worked out in a September plea deal.

Authorities said Wilson's uncle enlisted him to kill another man with whom he had a disagreement in a drug-dealing dispute, but an accomplice pointed out the wrong person. Wilson killed Green on Sept. 10, 2008, because he looked like the intended target. He was arrested the next year and pleaded guilty to murder on Sept. 8.

Lora Green, the murder victim's mother, did not hold back her hatred toward Wilson as she read a victim's impact statement Tuesday, insulting him and describing a litany of offenses he perpetrated against her family after the fatal shooting, including harassment and spreading rumors about her niece. She told Wilson she would kill him with her bare hands if given the chance.

"The day that you die, I will celebrate," she said. "You are an evil, rotten, satanic imp."

Green's father, Derrick, said his son was working to finish college when Wilson killed him on his 26th birthday. He described the pain the murder caused his family and echoed Lora's call for a harsher punishment, though with more measured language.

"I think he should get the maximum, which is 60 years," he said. "If that can't happen, I will fight for it."

Wilson declined to address the court, leaving his attorney, Alexander Schwartz, to speak on his behalf.

"During the many years he spends in jail, he'll reflect on what he did and the impact he had on the victim and, more importantly, on the victim's family," Schwartz said during the sentencing.

The prosecutor, Senior Assistant State's Attorney Joseph Valdes, commended the Stamford Police Department in solving a tough case. A big break came when Wilson shot a bouncer outside a Bridgeport club using the same .38-caliber handgun he used to kill Green two weeks earlier. Investigators used ballistics tests to determine the bullets used in the Bridgeport shooting matched those used in Green's death.

"This went from finding a bullet to finding a gun in Bridgeport," Valdes said. "It was basically perfect police work, following every lead until you hit pay dirt."

Stamford police officers investigated reports of gunfire the night of Green's murder but did not find his body until the following morning, when a relative discovered Green in a grassy lot on Garden Street.

Wilson confessed to shooting Green, and Stamford police investigators arrested him in March 2009. Two other suspects were charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder the following month. Police said Gifton Bagalloo, 28, of Stamford, recruited Wilson for the killing. Marcos Robles, 24, of Bridgeport, is accused of pointing the wrong man out to Wilson the night of Green's murder.

In December 2009, Wilson was sentenced to 10 years in prison for shooting the bouncer in Bridgeport.

Both Robles and Bagalloo await trials on murder and conspiracy charges.

Valdes called the case a "murder-by-request" instead of a murder-by-hire, since nothing of value was given in exchange for the fatal shooting. If Wilson had been paid to murder the intended target, Wilson would have been charged with capital murder, which calls for life in prison without parole or the death penalty.

Staff Writer Jeff Morganteen can be reached at jeff.morganteen@scni.com or 203-964-2215.